January 30th is the last chance to get the great rates for the Cabin block we have.

I’m happy to report we have exceeded the level needed to secure the dance areas we want! We’ve signed up 77 dancers so far with some joining us from as far away as Texas, Illinois, Michigan, N.Carolina, Virginia, Ohio and even Alaska! This will be another great time with people continuing to call now every day.

And…car-pooling will be set up for many areas and roommates can be arranged for those in need.

COME SAIL,DANCE & PARTY!

Mark and Trish had a good time this year seeing all their friends and performing for them. This year, Mark had Jack-N-Jill Productions as a vendor to do all the videography. This is a clip from the Exhibition & Forum DVD. In addition to Mark and Trish’s dance, all of the other professionals at the event showed their stuff and can be seen on the DVD as well. Enjoy the video.

It’s a very affordable, fun night out. You get 1 ½ hrs of learning each Tuesday over 6 weeks for only $35. You can dance another couple hours to a variety of great music after class. You get 2 drinks included with the $6. club door charge. You’re having fun and making new friends while getting some terrific mind & body exercise in a friendly atmosphere, with a great group of people all learning and enjoying arguably the best social activity you could ever be a part of. Don’t just watch any longer!

Mark’s 33 years of Dance Instruction experience, approach and constant upgrading of new teaching techniques to WCS makes understanding and executing the dance easier than ever. All instruction is explained in simple terms and all of the steps are socially leadable. Marks approach is for everybody to enjoy this great Dance form without being limited to Competition rules. For the Social dancer, especially for WCS, everything should be leadable, self interpretive and FUN! This is the class for you!

WCS being the most versatile of all, as well as most fun once ‘under control’, takes a little longer to get there. We spend more time learning it because we the better you know it, the more fun it becomes.

For those who have already taken a Basics class, it’s always good as you know to repeat the class to be sure your fundamentals are strong. And you’ll always pick up some info you may have missed the first time that will continue to improve your basics. Without them everything else will end up being, and maybe has been, a struggle. Make sure you’re complimenting your partners and making your dance experience fun for you both.

Continuing classes keeps you up to date, active, the mind sharp, involved and more apt to quickly become proficient and in demand on the dance floor instead of watching everyone else having the fun. Once your Basic techniques, especially lead & follow are under control, everything else comes easy. Are all your leads precise so your partner isn’t ‘guessing’? Can you ‘read & react’ to everything without having to fake your way through it all? Floor time, attending dances and events, practice thru classes make it happen. NOBODY gets it all right away or even the first time thru the session.

We have a good and growing ‘base’ of dancers now with the local WC dance community here and the best way for it to grow as it has everywhere is thru those involved ‘spreading the word’.

The more partners we all have the better! Dancing is, and always will be a fun, healthy, social exercise for everybody to enjoy!

West Coast Swing is without question the most versatile social partner dance form there is whatever your music preference may be…

Join Marks WCS Basics 1 and add WCS to your dancing capabilities. You’ll be very glad you did! It’s smooth, it’s stylish, sexy, fun, and easier than you think….it’s whatever you want it to be…and it’s what everybody is learning and doing! No partner is necessary. Come be a part of the next dance craze!

(Private lessons and coaching are available for those who wish to compete, or just want to be very good!)

At: The Rockin Ranch – 801 S. Nova Rd. Ormond Bch., FL

Begins: Tuesday January 12th at 7:30pm till 9pm. Lots of Open dancing & practice after class.
6 weeks – only $35. per person…(save $7. over the weekly rate)
** Please come in close to 7pm the first night for sign-up before class. Thank you.
Tuesdays are Swing Night at the Ranch!

• Explanation of the Relative Placement Scoring System
• Points Registry Information

The FloorPlay Events work because of the overall dance community’s support, our very capable staff, and most importantly because they are geared toward maximum Open Dance time and not Competitions. Yes we conduct a few and this year had about 160 total participants which helps add to the ‘show’, but this is, and always will be a ‘Party’ event with a premium on everybody dancing and having fun. Total time dedicated to competition and awards amounted once again to only about 6 hours. That’s it. And a good portion (3.5 hrs.) of that was in the afternoon and not ‘prime time’ evening dancing.

Our DJ’s play a nice variety of WCS music as well as other dances that make for a great mix and the Pro dance staff all conducted a very good variety of workshops as well and were very well attended.

Thanks to our teaching and Performing Staff Michael Kielbasa, Jen Deluca, always a delight to have, in putting on a great show along with our other Professionals from around Florida, Danielle Blouin, Trish Berlanga and John & Mary Jane Harris and for their very well attended and received workshops along with judging some very closely contested competitions. Thank you also to Rodney Moore & Joanna Matsis from New Zealand for adding to our show on New Years Eve with some East Coast/Lindy and conducting a workshop in the same.

A Special Thanks to Nicola Royston whose professionalism, talent and beauty added class to the event, and for bringing along that ‘other guy’, her husband Robert Royston…Robert was, as he is everywhere, the consummate Professional. Always entertaining, he kept the contests running smooth and pretty close to always on time. I have great respect for his multiple abilities and he deserves the title of ‘Best in the Business”….of course he owes all of his success to Nicola. ( I think I’m off the hook now) And I’m very pleased to report that they both will be returning next year!

Kevin McDeed, April Prince and Earl Yeomans for their terrific DJ work, great mix of music and April’s choices of competition music that made it fair for all competitors. Without the DJ’s great music we would all just be ‘dancing mimes’.

And, Cherry Taylor’s Master Dancefloor was, as always, a delight to dance on.

The problems? Very few again this year. Although the first night was a little warm in the ballroom we were able to get it taken care of the rest of the way. The Rosen Plaza, though not ‘perfect’, is always accommodating to our needs and we’ll happily be returning again next year. A few leaks in the ballroom were a surprise but fortunately they were not extensive nor interfered with any of the festivities. Other than that we ran pretty smooth.

The New Years Eve dinner was tremendous as always and they again allowed us to have the pizza party inside due to some very cool weather. And, as always we provided a bottle of Champagne on every table for the midnight celebration. Every year we try and will continue to fix any problems we can to make your event experience as pleasant as possible.

I would advise those who wish to secure a table for next year to do so early this year. Several already have. With our planned expanded advertising coverage, enhanced program ( Pro-Ams to be included along with another ballroom) and upgraded online websites we expect a continued growth in attendance. Almost all events had experienced a drop in attendance this past year due primarily to the economic problems but most hope, and expect things to get much better as 2010 unfolds.

Thank you one and all for your support and helping maintain our reputation as the ‘Friendliest Club and WCS Event’ on the circuit.

And a final HUGE Thank you to our staff below whose tireless, all important contributions to the Event make it all possible:

Kevin McDeed – simply cant say enough…he’s irreplaceable…The ‘right-hand Man’ of FloorPlay…I (especially), the Club and the dance community in general owe him a great deal of gratitude…the great, constantly updated music, sound system, video screen, the Laser light system, always terrific DJ work, coordination and numerous other contributions along the way…our yearlong FloorPlay club DJ both weekly and at our big monthly dance.

Amy Palmer running the front desk (probably the most difficult job of any event) with the help of experienced Staff members Bill & Julie Galbraith ‘covering’ for any mix-ups, and coordinating the efforts of our other terrific volunteers who worked so hard…, Linda Murphy, Meagan Thomas and her mom Marilyn, Denise Kirsop, Cindy Winternitz, Janie Morningstar, Ginger Rosacia, Irene Gomulka. All of whom helped with many other things also.

Ed Sullivan & Nora Batts – taking care of Security, workshops, tickets, handling all of the informative signs posted and seeing to it everyone who entered the Ballroom felt welcomed and comfortable.

Diane Scott – who has been on staff since the beginning in many capacities and fills in anywhere needed to keep things running smooth…and me out of as much trouble as possible.

Bill Bray & Maria Hardy, staff members from the Daytona & Tampa areas who have helped greatly on our cruises as well as the event.

Tagg Leduc – FloorPlay’s newest staff member as website coordinator and Videographer whose Jack-N-Jill Productions w/ Darla Martinelli did a terrific job shooting this years event. Check their website to get a copy.

I’m sure there are several others who volunteered some of their time to help each ‘station’ and to each I say “Thank you” and sorry for not having all of your names to mention.

Next year as mentioned we return to the beautiful Rosen Plaza and will begin the Event again on New Years Eve (friday) and continue thru Sunday night Jan. 2nd. (Although there may be an ‘Early Bird’ Dance Thursday evening). We have lots of ideas on how to continue to add to the event experience to keep it fresh and ‘unpredictable’. Beginning with the addition of Pro/Am Competitions.

HOPE YOU’LL JOIN US!

Thank You All.
Sincerely,
Mark Traynor
FloorPlay Club Director

Jimmy Formelio & Cynthia Meyer

Congratulations to all of the competitors whether you placed or not. It’s not an easy thing to perform in front of large crowds and there were many newcomers who’ took the leap’. Never one to hold back an opinion however, I think most played it too safe. When competing – Express Yourselves!

In addition to your overall score, we’ve included the individual score each of the judges gave.  This is represented by the numbers that follow the contestant’s names.

As used by Robert Royston ( who did the scoring for advanced JnJ) the scoring is as follows:

1 point for a 1st or 2nd…..then points based a point below the actual placement
ex: a 4th is 3 points, an 8th is 7 points etc…lowest total wins…

Jack n Jill Judges:
Nicola Royston
Trish Berlanga
Jen Deluca
Michael Kielbasa
John Harris
Danielle Blouin ( score determines placement if tiebreaker needed )

Novice Jack ‘n Jill
1st – Keith Little & Tonya Woytek 2 1 3 1 1 4
2nd – Ken Moreland & Michele Holm 4 4 5 2 3 3
3rd – Vence Harbuck & Stephanie Ritner 1 5 2 5 5 2
4th – Hugo Miguez & Holly Cookman 3 7 1 6 2 1
5th – John Dembiec & Dawn Prado 6 3 8 3 8 7
6th – Kyle Merritt & Whitney Brown 9 2 6 8 9 11
7th – Todd MacDonald & Tani Bodary 8 6 10 11 4 5
8th – Tagg Leduc & Franchesca Valenzuela 7 8 9 9 6 6
9th – Les Cheong & Darla Martinelli 10 10 7 4 11 9
10th – Phil Winfield & Linda Marcus 11 9 4 10 7 10
11th – Don Williams & Margaret Little 5 11 11 7 10 8

Intermediate Jack ‘n Jill
1st – Aaron McKenna & Carrie Stevens 3 2 1 1 1 1
2nd – John Meyer & Brianne Cline 4 1 2 3 5 3
3rd – Tommy Gibbs & Sharon Huang 2 4 3 6 4 4
4th – Rick Bowles & Debra Lynn 7 3 5 5 3 7
5th – Bruce Perrotta & Cherry Taylor 8 6 4 2 6 2
6th – John Grassia & Nancy Price 6 5 6 7 2 8
7th – Steven Teisch & Brianne Cline 1 7 8 8 7 6
8th – Michael Monaco & Nancy Price 5 8 7 4 8 5

Masters Jack ‘n Jill
1st – John Grassia & Nancy Price 1 3 2 1 2 5
2nd – Bruce Perrotta & Dori Eden 5 1 1 2 1 2
3rd – Rick Bowles & Debra Lynn 2 4 3 3 4 1
4th – John Meyer & Susan Downs 6 2 4 7 3 3
5th – Phil Winfield & Renee Lipman 4 6 5 5 5 6
6th – Tommy Gibbs & Cindy Overton 3 5 6 6 6 4
7th – Don Williams & Maria Hardy 7 9 8 4 8 7
8th – Roy Littrell & Roni Amber 8 8 7 8 10 9
9th – Gary Gammage & Linda Marcus 10 7 9 9 7 8
10th – Jim Jean & Cherry Taylor 9 10 10 10 9 10

Advanced Jack ‘n Jill
1st – Demery Strickland & Cynthia Meyer 1 2 1 1 2 1
2nd – Stephen White & Dawn Sgarlata 7 3 2 5 1 3
3rd – Andrew Makawski & Dori Eden 6 4 4 4 3 4
4th – Jimmy Formelio & Catherine Jean 2 1 6 6 6 6
5th – Wesley Kolpin & Krista Martin 3 5 5 7 4 2
6th – Richard Campbell & Renee Lipman 5 6 3 3 7 5
7th – Christopher Lo & Gina Brown 4 7 7 2 5 8
8th – Justin Grubbs & Jennifer Lassiter 8 8 8 8 8 7

Strickly Judges:
Nicola Royston
Michael Kielbasa
Trish Berlanga
Jen Deluca
Danielle Blouin
Mark Traynor ( score determines placement if tiebreaker needed )

7th Florida State Swing Championship
1st – Jimmy Formelio & Cynthia Meyer 1 4 1 3 3 1
2nd – Christopher Lo & Dawn Sgarlata 8 1 2 1 1 2
3rd – Andrew Makawski & Brianne Cline 2 2 3 7 2 3
4th – Demery Strickland & Krista Martin 5 3 4 6 4 4
5th – Keith & Margaret Little 3 5 11 5 5 5
6th – Tommy Gibbs & Renee Lipman 4 10 7 2 6 9
7th – Richard Campbell & Jennifer Lassiter 6 9 5 8 12 7
8th – Bruce & Beth Perrotta 7 8 9 9 7 8
9th – Stephen White & Carrie Stevens 11 7 6 12 9 6
10th – Louis Schreiber & Gina Brown 9 13 10 4 13 10
11th – Michael Monaco & Holly Cookman 12 12 8 11 8 11
12th – Aaron McKenna & Michele Holm 14 6 12 14 10 14
13th – John Grassia & Nancy Price 10 11 13 10 14 12
14th – Rick Bowles & Jana McNally 13 14 16 13 11 13
15th – Kyle Merritt & Anjeska 15 15 14 15 15 15
16th – Roy Baker & Alissia Bishop 16 16 15 17 16 16
17th – Jim & Catherine Jean 17 17 17 16 17 17

Scoring: WSDC Scoring system